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Microvariation in Bantu languages of South Africa: building theories from typology data

Research Project

Project/Area Number 21KK0005
Research Category

Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research (B))

Allocation TypeMulti-year Fund
Review Section Medium-sized Section 2:Literature, linguistics, and related fields
Research InstitutionInternational Christian University

Principal Investigator

李 勝勲  国際基督教大学, 教養学部, 上級准教授 (20770134)

Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) 古本 真  東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 研究員 (20796354)
品川 大輔  東京外国語大学, アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所, 准教授 (80513712)
Project Period (FY) 2021-10-07 – 2027-03-31
Project Status Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
Budget Amount *help
¥18,850,000 (Direct Cost: ¥14,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥4,350,000)
Fiscal Year 2026: ¥2,860,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥660,000)
Fiscal Year 2025: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
Fiscal Year 2024: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥3,380,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥780,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥4,810,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,700,000、Indirect Cost: ¥1,110,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
KeywordsSouth Africa / Prosody-Syntax Interface / Phonology / Bantu languages / Documentation / Southern Bantu languages / Tone / Fieldwork / Acoustics / prosody / syntax / variation / dialects / バントゥ諸語 / 音声音韻論 / 形態統語論 / 方言論 / 類型論
Outline of Research at the Start

This 6-year international collaborative project investigates the inter- and intra-language variation in Bantu languages as a collaboration between researchers in Japan (ICU and AA-ken) and South Africa (U of Venda and U of Free State). This project has four specific goals: (1) documenting inter- and intra-language variations at the interface between the prosody and sentence structures, (2) documenting narratives for the discourse and dialect level variations, (3) collecting archive-quality materials, and (4) updating existing theories or proposing theories based on a new set of data.

Outline of Annual Research Achievements

In AY2023, basic data was collected during the two field trips to South Africa and two grant meetings were held with members of the project disseminating their work. Field data collection happened in following languages: Sesotho (Maseru, Lesotho), Northern Sotho (Lenyenye), Tswana (Potchefstrom), Xhosa (Grahamstown), Ndebele (Mbombela), Xitsonga, Tshivenda and Siswati (Thohoyandou). Data processing was held in Tokyo, Japan with undergraduate and graduate research assistants at ICU.
Some research findings are as follows: (a) from Siswati data, we report how tone is realized on nasals and how tone interacts with depressor consonants, (b) tonal data of nominal phrases of Ndebele as well as the interaction between syntax and prosody in Xitsonga nominal phrases are disseminated. Results will be presented at two international conferences on African languages (WOCAL in Kenya and Bantu 10 in Tanzania), in which four presentations will be delivered.The presentations are collaboratively conducted between members in Japan and South Africa. Several research papers are due for publication.
The two workshops (online in September 2023, in-person in March 2024) were venues where progress reports of the project were made, and also future research activities were planned.

Current Status of Research Progress
Current Status of Research Progress

2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.

Reason

The project is progressing rather smoothly. We have amassed large amount of data of 8 Southern Bantu languages. The data has been processed and the results are being disseminated. The only language that has not been fully accessed is isiZulu. In AY2024, we plan to collect comparable Zulu data so that it can be incorporated into the larger data set.

Strategy for Future Research Activity

In AY2024, the project will continue to collect data of the Southern Bantu languages with a focus on DP element. DP elements varying in size and tonal patterns will be combined to test the interaction between syntactic structure and prosodic structure. The specific plans are as follows:
First, a questionnaire of DP structure will be created by Lee and Riedel. This questionnaire will be disseminated amongst the project members so that data from all 9 languages can be obtained by November 2024. The results will be analyzed between December 2024 and February 2025.
Second, baseline tone data will be compiled and finalized. Various sources of nominal and verbal tone exist, but this part of the research is creating a database of lexical items that can be used for creating study stimuli. As word size and lexical tone affect the tonal realization of sentences, having the stimuli will benefit researchers so that they can utilize it in other studies as well.
Third, longer DPs and their position in ditransitive sentences will be elicited from the Bantu languages. Analyses of the data are expected to reveal whether languages with different tonal phonology, tone spread versus tone shift, display comparable prosodic phrasing.
Fourth, dissemination of analyzed data is planned for domestic and international conferences as well as domestic and international journals. Both descriptive work and theoretical analyses will be presented. Preparations for this dissemination will be done in weekly meetings in Japan and collaborative meetings with South African members of the project.

Report

(3 results)
  • 2023 Research-status Report
  • 2022 Research-status Report
  • 2021 Research-status Report
  • Research Products

    (31 results)

All 2023 2022 Other

All Int'l Joint Research (3 results) Journal Article (6 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 5 results,  Peer Reviewed: 5 results,  Open Access: 4 results) Presentation (11 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 7 results,  Invited: 2 results) Book (4 results) Remarks (6 results) Funded Workshop (1 results)

  • [Int'l Joint Research] University of Venda/Rhodes University/Northwest University(南アフリカ)

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
  • [Int'l Joint Research] University of Venda/University of the Free State/Rhodes University(南アフリカ)

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Int'l Joint Research] University of Venda/University of Free State/Rhodes University(南アフリカ)

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Journal Article] Recursivity and Focus in the Prosody of Xitsonga DPs2023

    • Author(s)
      Lee Seunghun J.、Riedel Kristina
    • Journal Title

      Languages

      Volume: 8 Issue: 2 Pages: 150-150

    • DOI

      10.3390/languages8020150

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Prosodic prominence of Swahili TU in polar interrogatives2023

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J, Shigeto Kamano, Yuko Abe, Kumiko Miyazaki
    • Journal Title

      Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences

      Volume: 2023 Pages: 1489-1493

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Notes on geminates in Sesotho2023

    • Author(s)
      Riedel Kristina、Lee Seunghun J
    • Journal Title

      Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics Plus

      Volume: 67 Issue: 1 Pages: 49-58

    • DOI

      10.5842/67-1-1006

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] Locative Inversion and Passivization in Xitsonga2023

    • Author(s)
      Barrie, Michael Jonathan Mathew Barrie, Seunghun J. Lee and Crous Hlungwane
    • Journal Title

      Journal of Cognitive Science

      Volume: 24 Pages: 81-102

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Journal Article] ICULD-0041 Xitsonga (S53) : 2010 data2022

    • Author(s)
      LEE, Seunghun J., BABANE, Morris, HLUNGWANI, Crous, JOHNSON, Kiara Erica, MANABE, Sayaka, TUANYO, Chrisanne M.
    • Journal Title

      ICUWPL

      Volume: 21 Issue: 21 Pages: 1-38

    • DOI

      10.34577/00005139

    • ISSN
      24333883
    • URL

      https://icu.repo.nii.ac.jp/records/5361

    • Year and Date
      2022-03-31
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
    • Open Access
  • [Journal Article] Xitsonga tone: The syntax-phonology interface2022

    • Author(s)
      Lee Seunghun J.、Selkirk Elisabeth
    • Journal Title

      Prosody and prosodic interfaces

      Volume: 1 Pages: 337-373

    • DOI

      10.1093/oso/9780198869740.003.0012

    • ISBN
      0198869746, 9780198869740, 9780191912436
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Peer Reviewed / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Free Word Order and Prosody in Complex DPs in Xitsonga2023

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J.
    • Organizer
      Rencontres du Reseau Francais de Phonologie (RFP2023)
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research / Invited
  • [Presentation] Prosodic prominence of Swahili TU in polar interrogatives2023

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J, Shigeto Kamano, Yuko Abe, Kumiko Miyazaki
    • Organizer
      International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS) 2023
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Building collaborative language resources with and for language communities2023

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J.
    • Organizer
      言語資源ワークショップ2023(LRW2023)
    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
    • Invited
  • [Presentation] Locative inversion in Xitsonga2022

    • Author(s)
      LEE, Seunghun J., Crous M. HLUNGWANI, Michael BARRIE
    • Organizer
      9th International Conference on Bantu languages (Bantu 9)
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] Postnasal trilling in Bantu crosslinguistic variation and typology overview2022

    • Author(s)
      SHINAGAWA, Daisuke, Seunghun J. LEE, Lorenzo MASELLI
    • Organizer
      9th International Conference on Bantu languages (Bantu 9)
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] COVID-19 Mythbusters in World Languages2022

    • Author(s)
      ASHIDA, Mana, Seunghun J. LEE, Jin-dong KIM
    • Organizer
      The Language Resources and Evaluation Conference 2022
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] バントゥ諸語アーカイブの構築とアーカイブデータの活用について2022

    • Author(s)
      LEE, Seunghun J.
    • Organizer
      第18回CODHセミナー: マイクロ類型論とデジタルアーカイブ構築:バントゥ諸語と日琉諸語の事例から
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] バントゥ諸語マイクロ類型論とBantu morphosyntactic variation database2022

    • Author(s)
      SHINAGAWA, Daisuke
    • Organizer
      第18回CODHセミナー: マイクロ類型論とデジタルアーカイブ構築:バントゥ諸語と日琉諸語の事例から
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Auxiliary constructions in Xitsonga revisited2022

    • Author(s)
      Hannah Gibson, Crous Hlungwane, Seunghun Lee and Kristina Riedel
    • Organizer
      ACAL 53
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] 少数言語のデジタルアーカイブ:PhoPhoNOとBantuDArc2022

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J., Keita Kurabe, Daisuke Shinagawa
    • Organizer
      言語資源ワークショップ2022. NINJAL
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Presentation] Auxiliary constructions in Xitsonga revisited2022

    • Author(s)
      Hannah Gibson, Crous Hlungwani, Seunghun Lee & Kristina Riedel
    • Organizer
      2022 ALASA Biennial International Conference
    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
    • Int'l Joint Research
  • [Book] Aspects of Xitsonga Grammar2022

    • Author(s)
      Lee, Seunghun J. Thembhani, Babane Morris Hlungwani, Madala Crous
    • Total Pages
      203
    • Publisher
      アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所
    • ISBN
      9784863373761
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Book] Selected topics of Kirundi Grammar: A micro-typological perspective2022

    • Author(s)
      Shinagawa, Daisuke Abe, Yuko Lee, Seunghun J. Mugisha, Cherubin
    • Total Pages
      148
    • Publisher
      アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所
    • ISBN
      9784863373754
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Book] Working Papers in African Linguistics vol. 1: Selected outcomes of the ReNeLDA project2022

    • Author(s)
      SHINAGAWA, Daisuke LEE, Seunghun J. ABE, Yuko
    • Total Pages
      104
    • Publisher
      アジア・アフリカ言語文化研究所
    • ISBN
      9784863373846
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Book] International Christian University Working Papers in Linguistics 21: Bantu Language Digital Archive2022

    • Author(s)
      JOHNSON, Kiara, Sayaka Manabe, Chrisanne M. Tuanyo
    • Total Pages
      523
    • Publisher
      International Christian University
    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] JSAntu

    • URL

      https://sites.google.com/view/jsantuproject/home

    • Related Report
      2023 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] JSAntu Project

    • URL

      https://sites.google.com/view/jsantuproject/home

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] Bantu Language Digital Archive

    • URL

      https://bantudarc.aa-ken.jp/

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] JSAntu Project Homepage

    • URL

      https://sites.google.com/view/jsantuproject/home

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] Bantu Language Digital Archive: Xitsonga

    • URL

      https://bantudarc.aa-ken.jp/xitsonga.html

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Remarks] Bantu Language Digital Archive

    • URL

      https://bantudarc.aa-ken.jp

    • Related Report
      2021 Research-status Report
  • [Funded Workshop] JSAntu workshop2022

    • Related Report
      2022 Research-status Report

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Published: 2021-10-22   Modified: 2024-12-25  

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